MLS hands down Real punishment
May 8, 2008 by f4denz.
Jason Kreis suspended for 1 game for comments about officials
RSL coach Kreis suspended, fined real.saltlake.mlsnet.com
The Major League Soccer Disciplinary Committee today suspended Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kreis one (1) game and fined him $1,000 for public criticism of MLS officiating.
SL Trib coverage
Deseret News coverage
The original statements Deseret News
Jason Kreis’ frustration with Major League Soccer officiating has escalated for the past three weeks, and Real Salt Lake’s coach isn’t going to sit back idly any longer.
“After three successive weeks of game-changing decisions, it’s time we vent a little bit and put things right,” said Kreis on Monday afternoon. “I have a team doing their best to reward fans through a frustrating time and a frustrating few years. I feel the players are doing what they need to, the coaching staff is doing what they do, but being wronged by critical referee decisions is unacceptable.”
Price for talking ussoccerplayers.typepad.com
On my soapbox
So nothing mentioned by Jason in the article is wrong, in fact he is mild in my opinion. He doesn’t mention fouls in the DC United match that could have easily been called for an RSL penalty kick that was similar to a call that went DC’s way. He didn’t mention the missed calls by Kevin Scott during the match, he didn’t mention that Kevin Scott lives in LA and is rumored to be a Galaxy fan. Jason simply voiced what fans all around the league have said for years, the officials in MLS are anything but professional, they far too often miss easy calls and then make horrible calls in an attempt to make up the missed call. If the league expects players and coaches to not be critical, then they have to do something to get a more consistent effort from the officials. The match last weekend is not the first time Kevin Scott has been involved in matches where the officiating has been questioned; there are numbers of posts on the various soccer boards and blogs that question his ability and professionalism. There is also the incident two years ago at the World Cup, where Scott was involved in an officiating mistake made on the sports grandest stage.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
RSL midweek & DCU vs. Fire preview
May 8, 2008 by f4denz.
RSL midweek updates
RSL Notebook: Kreis finding compliment to Deuchar at forward Deseret News
Real Salt Lake’s coaching staff knew it would take time for the club’s dozen or so new players to get comfortable with the holdover players from last season. They also knew the bonding for Kenny Deuchar, a late preseason signee who only spent two of eight weeks in training camp with the club, would take even longer.
SBI Best XI in MLS week 6 soccerbyives.net
RSL puts one in the starting 11 and one on the bench.
ESPN Power rankings
Not sure how winless Houston is above anyone, but that is how the talking heads at ESPN see it, shame they only watch the one match shown on their channel each week. Can anyone else say clueless?
Fire visit DC United
What a great midweek match up, the 4-1-1 Fire head of to the nation’s capital to face DC United, plus we get our first look at the new VW inspired United kits. This one could be interesting considering that if you remove the 4 goal outburst against RSL a couple weeks, that DC has had real issues scoring goals with only 1 in four weeks. While the Fire have scored in every match this year but one, and that one was their loss against KC, the Fire also have 13 points so far this season to DC’s 6. The most telling factor for me is the injury front, the Fire have no injuries that are really impacting their play other than the continued recovery of C.J. Brown, who has not seen any action yet in 2008. Now look at the DC United list of out or injured players; Olsen, Carroll, Curtin, McTavish, Mediate, Fred, and Gallardo, sure some of them will probably see action tonight, but injuries affect performance.
This match up is historic, considering that when they have faced off in the past United has won 12 times, the Fire also have 12 victories, and the two teams have tied 7 times. It get’s even more fun when you consider that all time United has scored 48 goals against the Fire, and the boys from Chicago have scored 47 against DC, so historically this is a very even match up. I think the total goals get tied up at 49 tonight, so that means I think it will be a 2-1 score with Chicago picking up another win tonight.
OFF MY SOAPBOX